Stunning Mornings

The mornings have been absolutely gorgeous here and I wanted to share a few pics. Yes, that is snow. But here in Sequim (or south of Sequim), it generally falls in inches--not feet. We LOVE the snow now!!

This view is from the room that will probably become my sewing studio. It will have a hide-a-bed couch and/or a Murphy bed in it for company, but will no longer be a dedicated sewing room.  More on that when/if it happens. This room looks out over the back of our house.  You can see the sun rising over the Olympics.

A couple showing our pond and the gazebo in back...the pond is starting to ice over.

I couldn't decide which one I liked better so you get them both. (I know, I know...they're practically identical)

The front while we were feeding this morning. This is our totem pole with the flag pole behind it. You can just barely see the color of the sun in the background.

Kate, enjoying her breakfast and wishing the sun would hurry up! A bit later, all the ponies were basking in the sun while they ate. 

Every day when I go outside I admire the Olympics and where we live and feel blessed to be here.

Thanks for looking. Sorry the pics aren't better quality, but I took them with my phone.

Quilters are such Nice People!

A few weeks ago a new customer in Washington dropped a quilt by my studio. Dolores had sewn clothing forever and made one quilt--twenty years ago. She brought me a Log Cabin quilt made to replace the worn out quilt that she'd given to her son.

This quilt had some gorgeous batiks in it. Dolores chose Superior's So Fine Glacier thread to quilt it with and asked for an allover leaf pattern.

She wanted leaves and she got leaves...albeit blue ones!!

A close-up view:

Okay, that's the quilt stuff--now, "the rest of the story." While Dolores and her husband were here, we had the usual getting to know you conversation. I found out about her art and that her husband had been a large animal vet. He had her show me their business card with a watercolor of a gorgeous bull's head.  I also saw her Visa card that has another of her paintings on it. I asked whether I could commission her to do a watercolor of my horses, but she says she has to "feel it" or she just doesn't paint it.  Bummer...I was hoping for a trade. (sad face)

Today I dropped her quilt off and she gave me a gift...the painting below. She says its a print of her original watercolor. I was so touched I almost cried; it was such a sweet thing for her to do. The painting is about 12 x 18; now I just have to get it framed.

Isn't it gorgeous??

Life is Good!!!

My ponies are home!  Since we've moved they've been at one neighbors or another's while we found the time to fence in at least one of our designated pasture areas. They will eventually have four areas here, plus one other at our neighbor's to the south.

I do love having them home!!

Here's a photo of the gang.  Apparently, the stress involved in eating just wore Kate out. She had to have a little break before she could keep filling up that tiny tummy *smirk*

Dory

Poor Emma

We went out to feed just the other night and discovered that some bully had punched Emma in the eye.  Well, okay, so it wasn't really a punch or a hit of any kind. She just all of a sudden had a really swollen eye. A call to the vet to determine whether we should just dose her with penicillin resulted in a trip to the vet and a lovely $125 bill! He thought she might have a fox tail in her eye, but we knew better: first, she's not in a pasture that even has fox tails (it's too wet), and second, her eye wasn't tearing, so it wasn't trying to get rid of any foreign object.

Unfortunately, this is our only trailer. Small, eh??? It's great for endurance rides, but really a pain when you're only transporting one horse. However, I was quite proud of my girl. she'd only been in a trailer once, last summer, for trailer loading practice. She'd never actually gone for a ride and she'd certainly never gone in by herself. She was such a trooper, she loaded right up and off we went. Of course, when the vet came out to see her, he asked how many horses we'd brought...such a smart aleck.

He gave Emma a cortisone shot and gave us drops to put in her eye three times a day. I was amazed at how good she was about the whole ordeal, but I think she knew we were helping her. Hardly any head tossing as I held one eye lid up and the other down so Dennis could put the drops in. This is how it looked after a few days.

Finally, she's back to normal and as beautiful as ever. The only cause we've come up with is some sort of bug bite. Consequently, her fly mask goes on early and comes off late. (Ignore her stupid brother in the picture below...he likes to toss his head)

Dory

Might Snow...

The house and yurt from the barn

Probably not taking the Toter or the horse trailer anywhere anytime soon...

Front porch has a few feet of snow piling up from the roof and coming up past the deck...

Just getting to the yurt was a challenge.














I took this from inside the yurt. The snow is about 2-3 feet above the windows.

Snow never bothers Chloe when the horses are around.

Ba

Bailey's tail has snowballs!

Emma making her way into the barn through the snow tunnel--she practically has to duck to keep from hitting her head on the barn roof!

I think Emma may have been hanging around outside.

Winter Returns for a Day

The weather here has been amazing...its so springlike, I'm loving it. I am hoping for a few more good storms though to stave off fires.

This morning, however, we woke up to snow! Emma was not thrilled with the fact that she'd been left out in the pasture to suffer such a horrendous winter storm. All the ponies were happy when we showed up early with their breakfast.

A picture of Chloe doing her usual fence run and then jumping around with her feet just barely inside the pasture watching us feed. She loves her horses!

And Hank...have you ever seen a cuter dog???

Ride & Tie in Washington

Don and Annie Betts are heavily involved in Ride and Tie. Until last year, Don was the President of the organization and Annie did the newsletter. He's enjoying his first year in many to not have the presidential duties.

This year he put on the Lost Mountain Ride and Tie.  It was a 30+ mile event where two people compete on one horse.  For more about Ride and Tie, click here. Dennis has a screen-printing business, along with is embroidery business, so he did the ride shirts for Don.  Rather than mail them up, we delivered them in person.  Much more fun that way!!

The shirts are Annie's design and I think they're adorable!

There were only three teams competing (not all that unusual for R&T) and they all finished in good time with sound horses.  Here are a few pics of the teams and their mounts.

This mare was incredible! She was a big girl and she used to compete in some kind of polo event.  And she was incredibly fast...witnessed in person when she saw a llama for the first time and did a 180; unfortunately, her rider didn't keep up.

Above and below are the medical team. The doc (above) is also a pilot and flew over from Seattle to ride. The doc below (an anesthesiologist) flew out commercial from Tennessee to compete.  He loves R&T...obviously!! (They were riding Cinder. She's an awesome mare that I got to ride on Sunday to help pull the ribbons from the ride. We went about 10 miles on some incredibly treacherous trail. It was sure fun!)

And these two were the third team.  I just love this horse, Pumpkin.  Of course, I'm a bit partial to chestnut ponies!!

Okay, enough with the pony stuff.  Next post is all about quilts and one of our reasons for going to WA!

Vacation...aka Kate's Initiation

We left for Washington on Tuesday, the 15th at 8:30 a.m.--a mere 3 hours later than we'd planned.  We drove up through the back roads, going very close to the town where I went to high school. I was hoping someone else would pull in for fuel while we were there that I knew, but no one did.  I did, however, wave to a classmate's parents as we drove past Roberts Reservoir on our way toward Tulelake; not that they had any clue. *shrug*

Between the road construction and stopping to give the horses a rest, we didn't get to WA until just before dark.  As we drove along Highway 14 headed for White Salmon and the turn off to Trout Lake, I noticed some really hairy cows along the highway.  A closer look revealed that they weren't cows at all!  We took the wrong road out of White Salmon and ended up going up a steep grade through town with sharp curves in the dark in a really huge rig; it was a bit nerve wracking.  We finally arrived at the campground around 10 p.m.

We just pulled off the main road, flipped out the high ties, got food and water and blankets for the horses, and fell into bed.  Poor Kate...a 12 hour trailer ride and then left to hang on the side of the trailer with Bailey, whom she immediately kicked. I think she was letting us know her initial opinion of the situation.

The next day we moved camp, got set up, and drove to Portland to get the etched wineglasses commemorating the ride. Thursday the fun started.  We took Kate and Bailey out for one of the 12 mile loops that the Ride & Tiers would be doing on Saturday.  The trail at the Trout Lake Horse Camp is phenomenal: mostly single track with excellent footing, rolling hills and gorgeous views of Mt. Adams.  A little over halfway though the ride, Kate stopped.  Apparently, she just wasn't seeing the point of the whole thing.  After a little attitude adjustment (read: 'finding a stick to use as a crop'), she decided that continuing on was better than being tapped on the butt constantly.

Our camping spot...(told you it was beautiful!)

Friday, Dennis was talked into actually competing in the event.  Our original plan had been to help with the ride while riding our horses all week long.  Instead, Dennis participated--36 miles of running and riding! Below is proof: Their finish picture with the official time clock (which almost every horse spooked at).  They weren't even last, but that might have had something to do with the fact that the last team lost their horse twice (once he managed to untie himself and went to their nearby home!).

Instead of Kate going out every day and getting used to being ridden constantly, she learned what it was like to be left at the trailer while her buddy horse leaves.  She was not happy and let the whole camp know.  During the event, every time Bailey would come in for a vet check, I had to go get Kate to stand by so that his heart rate would be at criteria.  The vets became accustomed to seeing us hanging around.

Sunday we did manage another ride out, only 5 miles this time on a different trail.  Kate was really doing great, until her giant spook on the way back into camp.  Luckily, she calmed down almost immediately and I managed to stay on--always better than the alternative.

Monday morning we headed for home.  We got out of bed to find that Kate had chewed through her lead rope and was standing next to Bailey grazing.  Apparently, she'd run out of hay and needed something to do!  I know horses eat trees and fences...but lead ropes.  I thought only dogs chewed through their leashes!!

It was lovely to be away from home and camping with our horses and friends.  We had such a great time.  Below are some pictures...enjoy.

Mt. Adams (with SNOW in JUNE!)

Just some scenery...

Can you tell which dog loves horses and which dog was bored???

Another shot of Chloe enjoying her favorite pasttime! (Isn't she pretty?  She had a bath for the trip) She was at the finish line with me waiting for her horse.  Then she jumped all around him, biting his tail, on the way to the trailer, much to everyone's amusement.

And a final shot of George, Dennis' partner, and Bailey coming into the vet check.

Home at Last!!

More tomorrow, including pictures; we've been gone for over a week at Trout Lake, Washington.  We were camping at the Mt. Adams Horse Camp with Kate and Bailey and a bunch of really crazy, fun ride-and-tiers.  Don't know what a ride-and-tier is?  Click here to learn more.

Here's a little tidbit to keep you interest:  Horses chew through tie ropes, Dennis competed in the 36 mile event, and we loved, loved, loved the Trout Lake/White Salmon area.  Its beautiful!!!

Stay tuned....

Houseguests, Fly-Mask Fashion & Practice

Most houseguests call before they move in...our latest ones didn't bother.  They did, however, explore the entire porch before deciding to make our front door their home.

Recognize the nest?? It belongs to these guys:

They're incredibly cute, but now we have to be very careful before opening the front door.  They flit around and scream at us whenever we dare to exit/enter the house.  And they haven't even had their babies yet--it will get noisier, but the babies will certainly make for some cute photos.

On Saturday, summer arrived and with it, the flies that drive the horses nuts.  Everyone got new fly masks this year and were kind enough to model them for me.  What do you think???  Aren't these the best?!  The boys got cross-eyed eyes staring at a butterfly and the girls got flowers.  This is Bailey...

And here's Kate:

And for a little quilty goodness, here's another practice piece that I did after watching Jamie Wallen's Cotton Tracks. After all, isn't this blog supposed to be about quilting??